Fluid Between Scalp And Skull :-s (Page 1)

hope to get some advice and guidance here. We have a 9 week old baby. Over the last couple days we have noticed a fluid-filled bubble on the back of our baby's head. Its pretty pronounced, probably 2"x3". We took her to the local childrens hospital, where the docs were perplexed. They took xrays and did not find any fractures. We also took her to a pediatrician and he told us there isnt much to do but wait and see if it goes away. The baby has been acting normal.

Obviously, we are a bit concerned. I have read about this type of thing happening at birth, but not 9 weeks later. Should I be seeking additional opinions? Or should I take the docs advice and wait?

Iam sorry but if your anything like me I would have someone else look at her till you get some definate answers. Like my daughter had a bubble over her eyebrow, I kept going till we found out it was a cyst of fluid. Now oer time it has drained itself. Thank god....Let me know

My baby has the same thing. She is 8 weeks old and about a week ago I noticed the fluid, it was about the size of a quarter. It is now about the size of an egg. It doesn't seem to bother her when I touch it. And she is developing as expected for her age. The first doctor I saw told me it was nothing to worry about. But I got a second opinion and we just got back from having an ultrasound. Hope to get the results on friday. I hope it is nothing. Have you had any other advice since you previously posted your message?

Hi All. I found this discussion string extremely helpful when my husband and I noticed on our 8 week old daughter that she too had a fluid bump on her scalp in between her skull and skin. We were extremely worried and this board helped us to get an idea of what would be coming to us when we brought her into the pediatrician's office the next morning. The minute we brought her in, the nurse practioner on call (it was a Saturday) told us that it was either a caput or a celphahematoma. She told us that either way, it would not her or damage her brain. She wasn't sure if there was a crack in her skull near the bump or not but assured me that even if there was, there was nothing we could do to fix that anyways and that it would harden and heal on its own. They decided that in order to determine if we should be sent to a pediatric neurosurgeon, they wanted to take an xray to see if there were any cracks in the skull. The xray was so incredibly difficult to go through because we had to hold her down with her arms by her side and she was so scared and confused and crying so hard. It literally brought my husband and I to tears watching her go through it but we knew we had to find out if there was a crack in the bone. Luckily, the results showed a hardening celphahematoma, exactly when the nurse practioner had suspected. We met with our normal pediatrician that next day and he confirmed to us that it should be gone around the time she became 3 months in age. Some days the fluid was moving a lot and noticeable and some days we hardly could feel it. But it was crazy - it's like the day she turned 3 months old, it vanished and hasn't come back since. Our daughter is now 7 months old and doing great! I wanted to share our story knowing how scary it is when a parent first notices this on their baby's head. Thanks to this board, I had a lot of comfort knowing I wasn't alone. I was also so thankful that my pediatrian's office had seen this before and it wasn't so foreign to them as other's had experienced. Good luck to anyone going through this.

My daughter and I just felt my 8 week old grandson's scalp and noticed fluid. It is 11:00pm and too late to call the pediatrician. We are concerned. He is perfectly fine. Should we take him to the er tonight or wait until tomorrow afternoon for the doctor?

Daughter is now approaching 4 months of age. The fluid is still there, although it is a bit smaller now. It looks like it will be there for an extended period of time.

For those of you that are seeing similar things in their babies, I will share my experience. We were shocked and of course quite worried when we found the fluid. We were increasingly worried as the fluid increased. A few different tests were done to ensure that the fluid was confined to the area between the scalp and the skull. First was an x-ray to see if there were any noticable fractures. There weren't. Second we had an ultrasound, as the x-ray does not always pick up smaller fractures. Finally, to be safe we had a ct scan done. All came back negative for fractures or fluid seeping across the skull.

As long as the fluid is between the scalp and the skull, there really isnt much concern. Its constrained and will eventually disappear. As disconcerting as it is to see, feel, and worry about the fluid, there isnt much one could do. However, any fluid in the area could be due to a fracture. Therefore, go to your doctor immediately, ask for the tests that we went through, and make sure that the fluid is in fact limited to the area between the scalp and skull.

Hi! I have an eight week old son who also has a fluid bubble on the back of his head between his scalp and skull. We noticed two days ago and were advised by telehealth to take him to emergency, which we did. The doctor said that as long as he is acting normal, we shouldn't worry too much...But it hasn't changed much in the last few days and it looks like a soft goose egg. Have any of you found out what this could be? Do you have any idea of the source of this fluid? Could it be related to his rapid growth rate? His birth weight doubled within 7 weeks...??? Any new thoughts would be very much appreciated! Thanks!

Omg! I have been looking for a week for something that sounded like my soon was experiencing. My son was 2months old on dec 7th. It was probably about this time I discovered a raised "lump" on the backside of the top of his head from across the room as my wife was holding him.

My wife had a harder time giving birth to my son as apposed to my daughter. It wasnt a long time, but lots of hard pushing for an hour. It seemed like my daughter was out after 4-5 pushes... My sons head kept turning sideways and wasnt cooperating, there was even concern the cord may have gotten around his neck. After an hour with atleast 2 good breaks from pushing. The doctor asked my wife is she wanted her to use the "vacuum." at this point my wife said, "whatever we have to do."

the first question I want to ask everyone was "was the vacuum used during your births?" my sons head was very soft near the top in the back and a bit bruised the first day or 2. He was cone headed for a day, but it quickly subsided. I was concerned immediately because my daughters birth was so perfect. The nurses assured me that it felt similar to a "waterhead" baby, but that he was fine and it would go away over the next couple of weeks.

It did seem to go away or neither of us noticed it anymore after a week or so. Suddenly around the 7th of december of so, it was large enough to see from across my living room and looked coned or pointy again. Touching and feeling it horrifies me! It doesnt feel good and im dying to know he is fine, to the point of having nightmares at night...

My mothers a nurse since '79 and she was concerned, but thought it was nothing to worry about. After a day or 2 it seemed tobe able to be spreadcloser to the top of the head when applying pressure with your hand. We took him to the doctor after 4-5 days of waiting to see if it would just go away. Our family doctor said it definitely feels to be between the skin and skull and that it was nothing to panic over, but wanted to refer to a pediatrician for a second opinion. After the appointment we ended up taking him to the doctor my mother works for and he said it was probably nothing, but it needed to be checked out more.
The first doctor called back and said after consulting the pediatrician our son would probably just be refered to a neurologist. The neurologist couldnt see him until jan.23rd, 06.

This wasnt good enough for us so we decided to take him to the er. After nearly 4 hours of waiting the er doctor after talking with a neurosurgeon said "if its not gone in a week see a neurosurgeon, but its probably nothing" since the baby is doing fine otherwise and does not seem to have any other symptoms. Our son is going great otherwise. He was born 6 lbs 13 ounces and weights 12.3 at 9 weeks now. We contacted another neurosurgeon and are supposed to see him monday, dec. 19th for an mri. The er one said they didnt like to mri a baby that young duw to radiation and having to sedate him...

So after all this im still a nervous wreck awaiting monday (its friday). I just want to know what the heck this is??????? My baby has nearly doubled in weight in 2 months as well so I was wondering if anyone else had the vacuum used at birth and any updates any of you have. I would love to hear from yall very soon! Thanks for listening.

Hi
We just discovered same type of fluid filled lump in our 8 week old little boy. Doctor sent us to hospital to see consultant paediatrician. None of them can tell us exactly what it is but they are not overly concerned. Having a ultrasound scan next week (other scans have worrying side effects on babies).
He was born by emergency section so no ventouse as far as I'm aware.
I'm sure it's benign
Saran

Hi, I noticed a few days ago that my baby had a lump on the back of her head and it was squishy. I called our pediatrician and went in. He examined it and wasn't overly concerned by sent us for an US. Had the US done today and the tech and Dr didn't see anything. The Dr did say that the fluid is on the surface, not close to the brain and wasn't too worried. They are going to fax over the films to my pediatrician to see what he says. My question is, what is the fluid from? Why is it there all of a sudden at 10 weeks? Will it go away on it's own? If so, will it come back? I had my baby via c-section so it doesn't have anything to do with vaginal birth. So many questions and no answers?

Exactly the same here! We have a nine week old girl, who developed the bubble of fluid about two weeks ago. Since then it has, i'd say, quadrupled in size.

The paediatricians were, like in all of the cases above, baffled. They did the ultrasound, confirming there was no skull break and that the fluid was too 'watery' to be sinister and told us to monitor it.

It got progressively bigger and yesterday we'd just had enough so took her to a&e (er). They sent down another paediatrician who measured it (7cm x 8cm) and confirmed that because the ultrasound proved conclusively that there was no break and our daughter was in good form, that there was nothing serious (in a medical sense) to worry about. He did say that cosmetically it didn't look very nice and appreciated why we had concerns. He has told us to continue to monitor, to return tomorrow (monday 19th) to remeasure. If it gets worse, they may consider a full ct scan, although he is very reluctant to do this as it involves a general anaesthetic and the risks involved with that outweigh their concerns.

In answer to alicetooljam2, we had two failed ventouse (vacuum) attempts in labour. Please update with any news/ ideas/ info. Thanks all.

I have a 3 day old son that has the same problem. It's our second child and this birth was much more difficult than the first. 2-3 failed vacuum attempts before finally delivering via forceps.

We just noticed the fluid bubble on the crown of his head. He seems to be doing fine and it doesn't hurt him when we touch it. No bruising or any other symptoms other than the raised scalp. About 2"x3".

We're taking him to the pediatrician tomorrow, and if I remember i'll post a response on this board.

This sounds so familiar. Our 8 week old developed a fluid bubble, first the ssize of a quarter, then a small egg, then a large egg, and two days later it was the size of my entire hand. Very disconcerting.

We took her to the er, a pediatrician, a consulting pediatrician, and then two other pediatricians in a different practice, all who said, "never seen that before." we had a ct scan, which showed fluid between the scalp and skull, but no fractures, cracks, or stress on the brain.

We are waiting to go a pediatric neurologist for additional guidance.

As for the baby, she's fine. Eats very robustly (although a preemie, she's almost doubled her weight in 8 weeks too), sleep is normal, not a lot of crying.

She was also a vaccuum baby - two unsuccessful attempts to vaccuum her out.

My baby at 7 weeks developed sorrthing similiar to what everyone is describing. He's now 8 weeks. The ped.'s don't know what it is for sure. Had skull x-ray done, all neg. His is on the back of his head. At first was the size of a nickle, it has probably doubled in size. The fluid in his is moveable and will make a bubble when you move your hand in one direction. It's real soft. Not really noticeable unless your looking for it. But i'm sooo worried. The ped's said to wait and watch it. Hard to do.

Our delivery was not vaccum but was still hard and ended c-section after 2 hours of pushing. Baby head on shoulder and sunny side up.

I just discovered a fluid-filled bump - big!- on the side of my 6 month old baby's head above her ear. I freaked out and raced her to our family doctor, whose level of expertise I trust. He was not in the least alarmed or concerned by the lump, which made me feel better.

After he x-rayed to rule out a skull fracture , he told me that this type of lump is common in newborns who have had birth trauma, and occasionally happens in older babies for silly reasons, like they were sleeping in a funny position. He said that the fluid is caused by tiny blood vessel breaks, and that the fluid in these lumps will re-absorb into the body over time.

He asked me to bring my baby back in a week. I have three days to go, and have seen no reduction in the size of this lump. But - it doesn't appear to be bothering her in any way, so that's good. I'm going to give it the week and then take her to a ped's guy if it's still there, just to have a second opinion.

I found this on another medical-type website. It describes this sort of a lump:

"goose egg": you may feel a goose egg (soft swelling) on your baby's head. This swelling is caused by tiny blood vessels that broke under the scalp during labor and delivery. Fluid from the blood vessels then squeezes into the scalp during birth. The swelling may increase during the first week of your baby's life. A goose egg may take as long as two to three months to go away.

I found ehealthforum when specifically searching for info. On this topic, and figured i'd put in what I know for the next parent who comes along seeking answers to this very weird and alarming condition.

I am very curious as to whether any of you have had resolution of this problem. I too have a 6 week old, vacuum delivery, who developed a fluid mass on the skull that moves at week 5. I was perplexed when my pediatrician told me not to worry but could not tell me with any certainty what the mass was. Please share any new information you have come across.

Identical situation to all those described above; the fluid appeared at about 5 weeks; we're absolutely certain it wasn't there before; vaccuum pump used at delivery; baby doing fine otherwise; doctors told us to wait and see. (we haven't ruled out a fracture yet, but I may not even bother: it's so clear the baby is fine otherwise, and he hasn't ever bumped his head).

I vow to update with "what happened" in a couple months. Thanks to the thread initiator who did so.

If we get enough people with the same experience, maybe we can get it added to the little blurbs that they do about "what to expect with your newborn." the internet is so great that we can find people with similar experience, but sometimes the same "common" information is repeated so damn much that you can't find info about slightly less common but equally important things.

Many thanks to whoever started this posting. My wife and I have been beside ourselves with worry and fear for the past 10 days, when a "goose egg" lump appeared on our son's head between the hairline and his front soft spot. He is 16 weeks old.

The really wierd part is that it only appears when he's vertical/upright. When laid horizontal, it goes away--strange given that standing upright usually causes things to drain, etc. Rather than build up. Thankfully, he has no adverse symptoms at all (vomiting, etc.) and its not painful to him to touch it. He seems to be developing normally, with weight and height above average.

Like many others of you, he was born using a vacuum delivery (took three tries!). I'm wondering if there is something going on here...

We too saw our pediatrician who claimed he had never seen this before. So we went to a bigtime pediatric neurosurgeon here in la who also said it was extremely odd (he too hadn't seen it before) and scheduled an mri --but we can't get on the mri's calendar for another 4 weeks, causing further stress.

I would be greatly appreciative if those of you who had written earlier could update your learnings/findings/results. I imagine that we are all in the same boat where we are sick with worry. This is the first and only spot online that i've been able to find anything similar (and i've been trolling the web for weeks!).

Hello,
i posted a message back in september about my daughter having fluid under her scalp - she was about 2 months old then. I thought I should give an update as to what happened.

At five and a half months the fluid finally went away. Before it did, it changed from being squishy and moving around (about the size of a quarter) to becoming fairly firm, tight, and about the size of half a golf ball. We also had the tests mentioned by others above, which were all negative. Our daughter is now 9 months old and I had almost forgotten about it as she is such a happy healthy baby.

My advice to worried parents would be - you have every right to worry. Go with your gut. Press your doctor for at least a brain ultrasound to give you piece of mind that everything is fine. And try not to let outsiders (i.E. Your parents) make you more worried than you need to be. You know that little baby better than anyone. Best of luck.

Has anyone figured out what this is? My baby is 3 months old, and I noticed a bump on his head about 2-3 weeks ago..It is squishy, like a bubble of fluid - when you push one part of it, another part moves. It doesn't seem to bother him, and the pediatrician had pretty much the same response as every one else's doctors have said. We got an x-ray and there were no fractures.. So we were told to just keep an eye on it and it should reabsorb into the skull over time. I am just curious to know if anyone has any definitive answers as to what this is or what could have caused it. The pediatrician seems to think that it may be a bruise, but I have been with my child for the last three months and I am quite positive that he did not bump his head. He did have a pretty sizable bruise on his head when he was born - I pushed for 3 hours before he was born c-section, but the doctor says that we would have noticed this bump/bubble from birth instead of just noticing it at 2 months..

Quick (thankful!) update from my post a few weeks ago: after a ct scan and a brain mri (which was difficult to watch because babies need sedation and an iv to do it), our son got a clean bill of health. Though our pediatrician and a host of other doctors had not seen such a condition before, the pediatric neurosurgeon we saw had seen this many times. He explained to us that its basically a big, popped blood blister that for some reason had formed underneath the skin: that's why its squishy (due to the fluid that is floating around). He said that though it definitely causes anxiety for parents, its harmless to the kid and the body will slowly reabsorb the fluid over the next few months.

I asked him whether he thought the blood blister (i think the technical term is hematoma) was from the vacuum extraction and he said he doubted it because it came on so late (4.5 months); he thought it was from him bumping his head sometime. But I remain convinced -- especially after this bulletin board thread-- that it has to do with difficult deliveries, especially if the cranium is stuck in the birth canal for too long.

Hope that helps those of you who are concerned. I think the lesson is that if your baby is acting normally (alert, eating and sleeping well, etc.) and the bump doesn't seem to hurt him/her, you are probably in the clear. But the tests we had done -- while stressful -- definitely gave us peace of mind. Best of luck!!!!!

Im here to post an update. I posted in december when my son was 2 1/2 months old. In jan(3mths old). We had the mri and a catscan in feb(4 mths old). Both came back showing nothing wrong with the brain. We were told to wait it out and to come back if it got any larger but not to worry unless the baby started having seizures, etc. It was strange because his would vary in size by week and even by day at times it seemed. It would literally almost go completely away and come back the next week.

At about 6 months of age it finally went away and hasnt came back. I will tell everyone not to get too concerned about it, though I know its impossible not to. I do think it has something to do with vacuum births! There are too many in this thread alone that have that in common and I have read similiar things on other boards.

I do have some concerns with my babies head although the lump is long gone. He has a large head, which is flat on the back in some areas. We were also told he had torticollus when taking him in for the catscan. He doesnt like to turn his head to the left. He will do it to an extent, but never rapidly or as far left as he can go to the right.

I think this is contributing to being behind in normal baby things as well. Hes not sitting up by himself and he will be 8 months on the june 7th. He's alert, coos, and giggles alot, but he doesnt seem to "talk" that much (no dada or mama yet). As I said he doesnt sit by himself yet and doesnt have any interest in crawling though he does creep a bit.

He is the happiest, most content baby ive ever been around, but yet I cant help but worry about him, his development, and the size of his head. He does seem to be growing into it a little more in the last month. Its just been so different then my 3 year old daughter who was/is perfect during infancy despite a few ear infections.

I too wanted to post an update for any worried parents out there. My daughter developed the same described fluid filled bump at week 5 after a difficult vacuum delivery. It is just now completely gone at week 16. My advice is to demand the described tests, ie. X-ray, ultrasound, ct scan for piece of mind. Although it was very difficult to watch my 8 week old be anesthetized, it was extremely relieving to find out that there was no tear of the dura/brain covering which was suspected. Although the doctors seem to be surprised at the late onset of the hematoma, it appears from this log that it isn't that unusual. Best of luck to everyone and try not to worry too much.